Lesson study as a vehicle for collaborative teacher learning in a secondary school

Abstract

Lesson study is recommended to schools as a powerful approach to the development of teacher learning. This paper reports the outcomes of a 'Lesson Study' project conducted in a Mathematics department with four serving teachers in a secondary school in England. Using Dudley's lesson study framework and, drawing on Hargreaves and Fullan's notion of professional capital, the feasibility and value of collaborative lesson study as a vehicle for the development of teacher learning was explored. Planning and evaluation meetings as well as end-of-project interviews were analysed to investigate how teachers planned research lessons together and how these were evaluated. Despite time constraints, teachers who engaged in lesson study reported that the process improved understanding of their students, that collaboration helped them to develop less-teacher-centred approaches and created a stronger sense of teacher community. The project demonstrated that lesson study has potential as an alternative or complementary model of teachers' learning, but it also throws up substantive organisational challenges if its use is to expand.

Bridging the school placement gap with peer micro-teaching lesson study

“…In line with existing research student-teachers identified a number of ways that their thinking had changed during this activity and how they expected that their future practice would be affected, particularly in relation to a less teacher centred approach (Cajkler, Wood, Norton and Pedder, 2014):…”

Improving teaching, developing teachers and teacher educators, and linking theory and practice through lesson study in mathematics: an international perspective

“…A fine-grained discourse analysis of post-lesson debriefings revealed how teachers utilized their knowledge for teaching, and evidence of student learning, to develop their knowledge and enhance student learning. Further, from a perspective of professional capital (Hargreaves and Fullan 2012), based on analysis of the planning meeting, post-lesson debriefing, and end-ofproject interview, Cajkler et al (2014) found that participating teachers in a UK LS improved their understanding of student learning, developed a less-teacher-centered approach, and created a strong sense of teacher learning community.…”

“…Several studies revealed teachers' development of their competence (including knowledge, skills, beliefs, self-efficacy, and disposition) (Björk and Petttersson 2015;Cajkler et al 2014;Huang et al 2011Han and Paine 2010;Lewis et al 2009;Murata et al 2012;Suh and Seshaiyer 2015). With the evidence from various data resources including teacher interviews and teachers' collaborative talk, researchers documented teachers' changes in their mathematics knowledge and skills (e.g., Björk and Pettersson 2015;Dudley 2013;Fernandez 2005;Hunter and Back 2011;Lewis and Perry 2014;Moss et al 2015;Shu and Seshaiyer 2015), pedagogical knowledge (e.g., Cajkler et al 2014;Han and Paine 2010;Lewis et al 2009;, understanding of student learning (e.g., Bocala 2015; Lewis et al 2009;Murata et al 2012), and pedagogical content knowledge (e.g., Dudley 2013; Lewis et al 2009;Shuilleabhain 2015).…”

“…With the evidence from various data resources including teacher interviews and teachers' collaborative talk, researchers documented teachers' changes in their mathematics knowledge and skills (e.g., Björk and Pettersson 2015;Dudley 2013;Fernandez 2005;Hunter and Back 2011;Lewis and Perry 2014;Moss et al 2015;Shu and Seshaiyer 2015), pedagogical knowledge (e.g., Cajkler et al 2014;Han and Paine 2010;Lewis et al 2009;, understanding of student learning (e.g., Bocala 2015; Lewis et al 2009;Murata et al 2012), and pedagogical content knowledge (e.g., Dudley 2013; Lewis et al 2009;Shuilleabhain 2015). For example, Moss et al (2015) adopted a Japanese LS enriched by a design experiment to explore the ways of teaching and learning geometry and reasoning in early classrooms.…”

“…Drawing on Hargreaves and Fullan's (2012) notion of professional capital, Cajkler et al (2014) examined how teachers planned lessons collaboratively and how research lessons were evaluated.…”